sea
by Axletia Rosonetis
Summary: The sea is vast; the sea is...lonely. Oneshot.


_sea_

Velvet leaned against a mast, arms crossed, a gentle breeze running through her long hair. The wet, fresh scent of the sea basked in her nostrils, and she could almost taste the salt on her tongue.

 _Almost._

Once she would've been elated being surrounded by nothing more than the vast wind and water, but that elation was a fleeting emotion of the past. Now all the sea was was nothing more than another obstacle, keeping her apart from destroying Artorius with her bare hands. There was nothing good about being on the ship, either. If she tried practicing her attacks in the middle of the ocean, she risked damage to the ship or even the ship's crews. That would only further delay her goals.

"You're looking all grumpy again. C'mon, loosen uuuup~"

Velvet resisted the urge to claw straight through the mast and send whatever poor sap working up there straight to his death. Magilou tugged at her mouth with her dirty, bony fingers, stretching it out as wide as possible. She still didn't know why the witch continued to follow them when all she did was annoy them and pilfer what little resources they had. "Constant scowling's gonna lead to those premature frown lines. You're never gonna razzle-dazzle huge crowds like tha- ow!"

Magilou snatched her hand back and rubbed the bite marks, shooting a glare at Velvet. The black-haired girl rolled her eyes, tired of her theatrics already. "What do you want? I thought you said you were gonna hang out with the boys."

"Oh, they kicked me out the minute they decided to play strip poker. Soooo concerned about their manhood. I _could_ bother Eleanor, but she's so boring. I wanna hang with you, see if you wanna maybe get plastered with some of the sailors later."

"You know it takes a lot for me to even get tipsy."

"Don't be so boring like Eleanor! C'mon, indulge me a little."

"If I indulged you even once, we'd never get anywhere."

"Hhhhhh."

Magilou let out a long sigh and flopped to the floor, rolling her stomach upon Velvet's feet. Normally Velvet would've kicked her and snapped at her to stop acting so pathetic, but there was something so stupidly carefree about the blond that she toyed with the idea of actually indulging her. She really hoped she didn't regret this decision. "Hey, Magilou? Do you ever feel suffocated by the vastness of the sea, just being out like this?"

"Is this the punchline to something? This sounds like a setup to a terrible joke."

"You know I never joke."

"Hmmm, you're right." Green eyes looked up at Velvet, the faintest hint of graveness deep within those catlike sparkles. "I thought I would never get accustomed to it. When I was a kid, I lived as a street urchin most of my life. Detested water with all my heart. When I got taken in by my old man, he had to hunt me down for three days and then strap me to a chair in order to give me a bath."

"Magilou…"

"I've always thought drowning was such an ugly way to die," Magilou continued, frowning. "You're surrounded by nothing, falling down to your doom. Your cheeks bloat and your entire body will just sink lower and lower until it floats back up. And it happens so slowly. There's no honor or beauty in that. I often can't sleep at night when we're sailing because I'm terrified I'm gonna wake up and choke to death."

She rolled to her side and hugged Velvet's ankles. Velvet looked down at her, softening her gaze. This wasn't Magilou's usual pathetic, arrogant self. She was….vulnerable, susceptible to her own mortality. It made the world feel a lot less secure. Kneeling down she ran her hand through the blond's stringy hair, brushing out loose dirt and leaves away. "Hey," she murmured. "We survived a lot worse than being taken out by the sea. If you start moping around, everyone's gonna get discouraged."

"Not possible. Eizen's rock-solid apathetic."

"Well, I'm sure he'd feel….something."

"The only thing he ever feels is a hangover."

Velvet had to chuckle. Seeing Eizen show any type of discouraging thoughts sounded mildly amusing at the least. Whenever they were up against any type of trouble, he was the only one unperturbed by even the worst cases of demons. The Reaper's Curse really took its toll on him. Magilou leaned in closer to her hand and sighed, looking up at the sky. Plenty of sun and puffy, white clouds, a rare, peaceful day for them. "I thought you would never show this type of uncertainty, either," she said softly.

"Huh?"

Magilou grimaced. "You always go in, demon claw a-blazing, never asking any questions. So, you're even afraid of what we do sometimes."

There was a long silence. Velvet gently scratched the blond's cheek, refusing to meet her gaze. She didn't want to admit it, but Magilou was right. Even as a demon, she couldn't shake off the bouts of fear sometimes when she fought against other demons. What would become of everyone else if she ever failed? "I never wanted to be this far away from home," she finally said. "Laphicet was the one who wanted to go out and explore the seas as a sailor, but I never wanted that. I thought that I'd always keep house, waiting for him, cooking a warm welcome home meal whenever he came back. I…always thought being at sea must've been so lonely…"

Retreating her hand she pressed it against her chin, drifting into silence. There was a vast difference between being a homemaker and being a demon ex-convict. Whatever words that were going to come next choked up in her throat, feeling like dry cotton. Laphicet and her future were also dreams from long ago; now all she could do was live in the present.

Something pointy poked at her chin, mouth, and nose. Magilou's hat blocked all spots of her vision, and the girl had squeezed herself into her lap like a cat. On any other occasion, this would feel more than suspicious, but she hesitated to knock her off straight away. Somehow, she felt like they were having a moment. Her stomach was squeezed. "It's, uh, not so bad," Magilou mumbled. "We've been through worse."

"….yeah. Let's drink later."


End file.
